Tag: LIFE

Treatment is available that often can manage lupus symptoms effectively, but it may not always be possible to prevent heart, kidney and other health problems associated with the disease. Learn more from Dr. Uma Thanarajasingam, rheumatologist.

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I was diagnosed with lupus six months ago. I am 23. Are there things I can do now to prevent heart or kidney problems down the road?

ANSWER: Lupus is a complex autoimmune disorder that can affect any organ system in the body. Although you can take steps that may lower your risk for developing complications, it may not always be possible to prevent heart, kidney and other health problems associated with lupus. But treatment is available that often can manage symptoms effectively. Working closely with your care team to get regular checkups and blood tests to monitor your condition can help control lupus.

Lupus develops when your body’s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many body systems — including your heart, kidneys, joints, skin, blood cells, brain and lungs. Lupus is a chronic disease that does not have a cure at this time.

Unpredictable and debilitating bouts with symptoms of the disease are known as flares.

At times lupus patients may have periods with few to no symptoms, commonly called remissions. Some physicians are uncomfortable with the term “remission” as lupus symptoms rarely disappear completely. They may, instead, choose to use the term “quiescence” (pronounced: kwee-ess-ence.) At other times the patient may have high disease activity which include unpredictable and debilitating bouts with symptoms of the disease.

Flares can be classified as mild, moderate, or severe. For example: A mild flare could perhaps be signaled by a lupus rash, moderate flares could include the rash, fatigue, and joint or muscle pain, and severe flares could potentially cause damage to the organs including fluid buildup around the heart or even kidney disease or failure (called lupus nephritis), which would require immediate medical attention. Back to top

So how is a lupus flare recognized?

Most lupus patients will have symptoms of muscle and joint pain as well as fatigue regularly, so what makes a flare different? Here are some warning signs of a pending lupus flare:

It is important to report any of these with your medical caregiver as soon as possible so that they can quickly assess and treat any symptoms that could signal a flare. Keeping a daily symptom journal can be a helpful tool. Back to top

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disorder where the body’s immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal, healthy tissues. It results in symptoms such as inflammation, swelling, and damage to joints, skin, kidneys, blood, the heart, and lungs.

This is the way it works. There is a protein called antibody that the immune system produces in order to protect and fight against antigens (which are foreign substance to the body) such as viruses and bacteria. Lupus will now make the immune system unable to recognize and differentiate between antigen and the normal healthy tissue in the body which makes the immune system direct antibodies against the healthy tissue causing swelling, pain, and tissue damage.

The effect of lupus can affect any part of the body such as joints, blood vessels, lungs, kidney and other internal organs.

This article will provide you with information on how to treat the inflammatory effects of autoimmune diseases such as lupus naturally. In addition, you will learn why it is important to avoid the dangers of immunosuppressant drug treatments, if possible, and address the root causes of the disorder. At the bottom of this article you will discover 19 strategies to use in order to heal systemic lupus naturally.

Who Is Affected by Lupus?

Sex matters in the risk of developing lupus as this chronic autoimmune disorder affects 9 women for every 1 man. Individuals at an increased risk for lupus also include individuals of Asian or African descent, individuals at reproductive ages between the late teens to early 40s and has the highest prevalence in Italy, Martinique, Spain and the British African-Caribbean population. (22)

Researchers hypothesize that factors which trigger the worsening effects of lupus are predominantly characterized by women’s hormones like estrogen and hormonal fluctuations caused from stress and pregnancy affecting the immune system (15). Individuals with a family history of an autoimmune disease have an increased risk of developing the disorder.

Environmental risk factors include those with increased exposure to toxins and poor diets. For example, a diet high in processed foods increases the inflammatory state of the body, increasing risk for autoimmune complications such as food allergies and gastrointestinal disturbances.

Life-Changing Foods is not your regular fruits and vegetables book, or even a regular health book. It’s a symptoms and chronic illness survival guide that will help you protect the health of you and your family in the challenging times we live in.
Despite advancements of modern medicine and technology, we are not getting healthier. There’s more chronic illness, and each generation is worse than the one before.

We are at a point where we must know how to protect ourselves and the ones we love now and in the future. Our survival is reliant on it. That’s why I wrote Life-Changing Foods.

There’s never been a more critical time to release this information from Spirit.

You will be given a powerful set of tools for healing from illness and keeping yourself and your loved ones well in an increasingly toxic world.